By Holly Rhodes

The Committee on Law and Justice of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine convened a workshop in April 2018 to examine how the criminal justice system affects the fundamental status of people as members of society and to consider next steps for research, practice, and policy for the field. Ruth Peterson (Ohio State University), chair of the workshop planning committee, stated that the goal of the workshop was to find common ground to work toward a criminal justice system that avoids social exclusion through consequences “so severe or lasting as to violate one's fundamental status as a member of society.” Instead, she said, the system should reflect the principles of citizenship and social justice with a “fair distribution of rights, resources and opportunities.” Robert Crutchfield (University of Washington), member of the planning committee, added that the workshop was specifically designed to explore the reasons for the disparate experiences of individuals involved with the criminal justice system by race, ethnicity, and gender, the mechanisms that cause them to persist, and what can be done through policy and practice to minimize those differences. Participants—including researchers, policy makers, and advocates for victims and offenders—discussed issues in five areas: the role of criminal justice in social exclusion; patterns of inequality in criminal justice; collateral sanctions of the criminal justice system; special concerns for youth and young adult populations; and next steps for research, policy, and practice.

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2018. The Criminal Justice System and Social Exclusion: Race, Ethnicity, and Gender: Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

By Steve Olson and Karen M. Anderson

The United States is home to 4.4 percent of the world’s population, yet it has 21.3 percent of the world’s individuals experiencing incarceration (Walmsley, 2015). Though the total is down from its peak in 2008, in 2016, 1.5 million people were in prison and 630,000 were in jails—a seven-fold increase since the 1970s. The high rate of incarceration in the United States is a major contributor to the nation’s health inequities. African Americans are more than three times as likely to be incarcerated as whites, and incarceration rates are also elevated for Hispanics, Native Americans, and other population groups compared with the general population. In addition, people who are incarcerated differ from the general U.S. population in terms of poverty levels, geographic origins, gender, and a wide range of health indicators. Health equity, then, intersects with incarceration, reentry, and community health. To examine the connection between incarceration and health inequities, the Roundtable on the Promotion of Health Equity held a workshop on June 6, 2018, titled The Effects of Incarceration and Reentry on Community Health and Well-Being. As part of its commitment to hold workshops in parts of the United States that are particularly affected by the issues being discussed, the roundtable held the workshop at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, which has one of the highest rates of incarceration of any major American city. It is important to note that the programs and models that are described in this Proceedings of a Workshop are all Philadelphia based, as this is where the workshop took place. As Antonia Villarruel, Margaret Bond Simon Dean of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and chair of the roundtable, said in her opening remarks, holding the workshop at the University of Pennsylvania “represents the university’s commitment, as well as the school’s commitment, to working with vulnerable populations, health equity, and social justice.” Winston Wong of Kaiser Permanente also emphasized the place-based nature of the roundtable’s work. “We look at people and we look at communities,” he said. “We look at how individuals who are part of the fabric of our communities are impacted. And we look at assets as much as we look at barriers and obstacles.”

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. 2020. The Effects of Incarceration and Reentry on Community Health and Well-Being: Proceedings of a Workshop. Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.

May Contain Markup

By Raymond T. Nimmer

Problem Identification: The document highlights the extensive issue of arrests for public drunkenness and vagrancy, which disproportionately affect skid row men and strain the criminal justice system.

Current Approaches: It discusses the effectiveness of current criminal justice approaches in addressing the needs of skid row men,often leading to a "revolving door" of arrests without meaningful intervention.

Alternative Solutions: The document explores alternative programs in cities like St. Louis and Washington, D.C., focusing on detoxification and social services rather than criminalization.

Research and Analysis: It provides a comparative analysis of traditional criminal justice systems and alternative programs,emphasizing the need for policy changes to improve outcomes for skidrow men.

Chicago American Bar Foundation , 1971, 202 pages